The Truth
by Ammie Hawk
Summary: After the events of the Avengers, Nick Fury asks some of the former Gundam Pilots for help. However, a secret lies within Avengers Tower that could throw all of them for a loop. Set post GW, and Avenger movieverse
1. Prologue

The Truth

By Ammie Hawk

Disclaimer: I do not own Avengers or Gundam Wing.

Summary: After the events of the Avengers, Nick Fury asks some of the former Gundam Pilots for help. However, a secret lies within Avengers Tower that could throw all of them for a loop.

AN: Okay, I'm going to try and do my Twelve days of Christmas again this year, my work load has severely depleted and I have a bit of extra time on my hands. However, I'm still suffering from writer's block, so I'm asking my fans to help motivate me in this journey. If you want to see something, I'm now on facebook, just look for Ammie Hawk and send me a friend request stating that you're from fanfiction and I'll add you. Anyway, I hope ya'll enjoy my latest venture into uncharted territory.

Prologue: The Call

Quatre Raberba Winner sat at his desk in the main branch of WEI, located on the L4 colony, going through the mountain of paperwork he had been neglecting for the past few days or so. In his defense though, he had been distracted by the wedding of his good friends Heero Yuy and Wufei Chang. It was about time though, those two had been dancing around each other for years before they finally admitted that they might actually like each other and eventually got together, then there had been the years of them just dating before Duo, his other half, had convinced them to make it official and tie the knot already.

No, no, not letting that distract him again. He shook his head and turned his thoughts back to the task at hand, namely paperwork. He had just started in on the pile once again when his office phone started ringing. With a sigh, he put his pen down and reached over and connected the call.

"Quatre Raberba Winner," he answered automatically.

"Mr. Winner," the voice on the other end hand him frowning slightly. "I assume you know who this is. As such, I seem to be in need of a bit of help dealing with a few things in New York City."

"I heard about that," the blond rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. "But I fail to see how you need my help."

"The city needs rebuilt," the other stated plainly. "I know that you know, the city does not have the resources to hire you to help in the rebuilding, however, it would be in your best interest to do so."

"I see," the strategist in him was working overtime. "And you didn't ask Stark to do this, because…? Perhaps it's because he was involved in the destruction, or perhaps you just don't want to be in his debt. You would rather be in mine, because apparently I'm not as unreasonable."

"So, I can count on your assistance?"

"Yes, of course, we will be there within the week," Quatre couldn't help but smile mischievously. "Till then, Director Fury."

"Till then," Fury replied before cutting the call.

Once the call was ended, the former Sandrock pilot sat back in his chair and placed his hands together in front of himself, lightly drumming his fingers together. Well, it looked like his paperwork was just going to have to be put on hold again, or he could get Rashid to do it, which is more than likely what he would do. However, in the meantime, he had some phone calls to make, one to his husband and the other to a good friend of his that he hadn't contacted in quite awhile.

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Tony Stark, CEO of Stark Industries and the legendary Iron Man, was going over the specs for Stark tower, which had received extensive damage from the attack on New York when Loki gained possession of the Tesseract. The entire city was undergoing major construction, but he was more concerned with his own building at the moment. People said he was selfish, but he saw himself more as… okay who are we kidding, he saw himself as selfish too. He was interrupted from his tinkering as his phone began ringing.

"Jarvis," he called irritably to his AI system, "I thought I told you to hold all calls."

"I'm sorry, sir," Jarvis said evenly, "but the caller insisted that you would want to talk with him, especially since he overrode my systems to place the call to your direct line."

With a few muttered curses about incompetent computers, he clicked a button on the bottom right hand corner of one of his many screens which would connect him to his caller.

"Stark speaking," he snapped, not looking at the screen, even though it was a video call. "I'm a busy man. And start with how you hacked into my system."

"It's really not that hard to bypass a security system when you know the person who built it," the person on the other end laughed. "I told you that back in college when I erased the record you earned with the Preventers. You never did figure out how I did that, did you Tony?"

Tony's head whipped around so fast the other winced in sympathy for the man's neck, "Quatre!? Quatre Raberba Winner? To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"

"Can't I just want to call an old friend?" the blond on the screen gave him an innocent look.

"Right," he crossed his arms and leaned his hip against the counter he was working at. "Cause you've called how many times in the past several years? I think maybe once or twice a year isn't it? Christmas and birthdays, oh and there was that one time after I came back. So, I haven't disappeared recently, well, not completely, and I'm pretty sure it's not my birthday, so that leaves Christmas, right? So what'd you get me?"

"Oh god, Tony," Quatre laughed, "you're worse than Duo."

"Speaking of which, how is my favorite manic twin doing?" Tony grinned at the mention of the braided man. "I miss him. You know, you two should come out for a visit soon. Probably not right now, cause of how things are currently, but soon."

"Actually, that's why I called," the former terrorist shook his head. "I'm coming planetside to New York. I'm going to be aided in the reconstruction. I figured if I gave you the heads up, we could meet up at some point. I know how busy you've been recently, so I thought I'd give you time to clear your schedule or something."

"No, no, no," the billionaire superhero shook his head emphatically, "if you're coming anyway, you can stay here, it's not like I don't have the room, even with all the unwanted guests I currently have staying here. You and Duo are more than welcome here at any time, I believe I've told you that before, I think it was at your wedding. Though I think at the time, I told you each separately, just in case marital bliss wasn't all it was cracked out to be. Anyway, I'll have Jarvis prepare for your stay, and I'll see you in the next few days."

"Alright, alright," the blond put his hands up, knowing it was pointless to argue. "We'll be there in a few days."

"Till then," he grinned again before the call was disconnected.

He turned back to his screens but couldn't concentrate on his work. There was just too much to do, and firewall, and make indestructible, if he was going to have two of his second favorite people in the universe at his house within the week. But first…

"Jarvis! Scrap those plans," he pointed needlessly at the holoscreens. "I need better ones. Put together some ideas that would Hulk proof this place. No, no, no, scratch that. I want this place Gundam proof. Shinigami's coming to visit."

"Of course, sir," the AI system replied.

With that being said, he headed out of the door to his lab, a small bounce to his steps and went in search of his current housemates. He found them all gathered in the living room. Bruce Banner was seated in an armchair off to the side reading a large book of some sort that Tony couldn't be bothered to figure out what was at the moment. And to some surprise, Thor and Steve Rogers were sitting on the couch, each with a game controller in their hands, battling it out on the big screen television while Clint Barton and Loki looked on in some anticipation. The only one currently missing was Natasha Romanoff, but he could fill her in later, or one of the others could, he didn't really care. He cleared his throat and immediately gained their attention.

"So, guys," he looked around at the weird assembly of people currently residing in his house, "figured I'd let you guys know, we're gonna have company coming in the next few days."

"And who might that be?" Bruce asked, looking back down at the book in his hand. "One of your little girlfriends who you won't remember in the morning?"

"No," Tony rolled his eyes at his fellow scientist. "If you must know, he's one of the nicest guys in the entire universe, and a really good friend of mine from back in college. He's going to be in town working on the reconstruction, and I invited him and his husband to stay here while that's going on. Now, he's normal, like normal people, well his husband's not really, but anyway, so try and keep things normal around them. He's one of my oldest and dearest friends, so play nice and try not to scare him away."

"You have friends, Tony?" Natasha sniped, coming back into the room in time for the end of his speech. "I don't believe it. You don't play well with others, it's in your file."

"Quatre and I go way back," he scoffed. "He helped me out of a few tight spots with the Preventers back in college, and we've been close ever since. Anyway, Quatre and Duo will be here in the next couple days and you're all gonna play nice, or to hell with what Fury says, you can get out of my tower."

"Speaking of Fury," the only female of the group interrupted, "I just got off the phone with him. Apparently, he thinks that you need more looking after than what Clint and I can provide, so he's sending in one of the top brass of S.H.I.E.L.D. to keep an eye on things. He said they should be here in about two weeks."

"Great," Tony threw up his hands in irritation, "more unwanted people in my home."

While he went on, no one seemed to notice as one person slipped soundlessly from the room.

8888888

Clint Barton made his way down the hall to his room inside Stark tower. He was sure no one had seen him leave, for which he was grateful, he didn't need to deal with anyone right now. This couldn't be happening, not now. He had worked too hard and for too long to put everything behind him.

He flopped back onto his bed, he couldn't think about that now. He wouldn't let himself dwell on it, he just couldn't go through that pain again. With that thought firmly in his head, he got off the bed and quickly located his duffle bag. A slight smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth as he looked inside and found all his essentials, it was a good thing some habits die hard after all.

The archer was gathering a few more things from around his room that he might need, namely his bow and quiver, when a knock sounded on his door. He scowled at the closed portal, debating for a moment whether or not he should just ignore whoever was on the other side. He had just decided to ignore the unwanted interruption, hoping the other person would just leave him be. However, this just didn't seem to be his day.

"And just where do you think you're going, Archer?"

Green eyes narrowed slightly at the intrusion, "It doesn't matter, Loki. I'm leaving and that's that."

"Why?" the Trickster cocked an eyebrow. "Don't you want to meet Stark's friends?"

"Not really," he shrugged, going for nonchalant. "I have no real reason to see them."

Loki's eyes narrowed slightly, something wasn't right, "What don't you want the others to know, Barton?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he turned and started gathering his bags. "Now I have to go, I need to be as far from here as possible. Maybe I'll go to the colonies, with two of them here I'm sure I can avoid the others."

"Wait," dark brows drew together in a frown. "You already know Stark's friends that are coming, don't you?"

Silence greeted this question, and the archer made his way to the door, trying to bypass the Asgardian.

The god of mischief stepped into his path, "You're going to answer me, Barton. Either that or I can go get my brother to pound it out of you."

"Just let me pass," he ran his hand through his hair. "I don't have to answer you. I answer only to myself."

"I can always make it very difficult for you to leave this facility. Or, you could always take me with you so that I don't have to deal with any more of these self righteous do gooders."

Clint paused for a moment, considering his options, "If I tell you will you let me leave in peace?"

"Perhaps," Loki waved for the other man to continue.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent sighed, dropping his bags on the floor and plopped down on the bed, "Fine. But this is going to take some time."

"I have all the time in the world," the Asgardian said as he sat down cross-legged on the floor.

Clint put his head in his hands and stared at the floor, unable to even look at the other, "Well, I guess it all started years ago, when I was fifteen. I was a soldier, I was sent to Earth to take out the organization called OZ. Along the way I met up with four others who all had the exact same mission that I did. We ended up fighting, and winning, the war. Afterward, we all went our separate ways. I ended up with a circus troop I had joined during the war as a cover.

"I lived there for several years in peace, until someone from the organization that had originally planned to send the five of us to Earth found out where I was. They attacked the circus, killing everyone, trying to find me. Obviously, I managed to escape, but I couldn't save any of them, not even the girl I considered a sister.

"After that, I disappeared, leaving that life behind me," he shook his head, clearing it of the images that were dancing through it. "I changed my name and became a master assassin, fighting was all I knew how to do. Eventually, Fury found me and I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. But as for the other four, we were really close until that incident, but after that I couldn't face them. They were all living their lives normally, nothing bad happened to them. So I cut all communication from them and disappeared from their radar as well. Stark's friends are two of the four: Quatre Raberba Winner and Duo Maxwell, at least I'm pretty sure they are, I've never heard of another couple by that name anyway."

"So is it your old friends that you're running from, your new friends, or yourself?" the dark haired man asked.

"All of them," he snarled. "I can't bring anyone into my problems, and I don't want to deal with the pain they'll bring with them."

"Pain is an essential part of life, Barton," the Asgardian scoffed. "Without it, how do you really know you're alive?"

"I know that pain is a part of life, but that much pain is too much for one person to bear," the archer gave a wry chuckle. "Though the only person who could possibly understand what I'm going through is unfortunately one of those I cut out of my life forever."

"How old were you the last time you saw them, Barton?"

"I don't really know," he shrugged. "I've never actually known how old I am, but I'd say around nineteen or twenty."

"And how long ago was that?" Loki questioned patiently.

"About ten years or so," he frowned.

"You'd honestly be surprised how much people tend to change in that length of time, Barton, especially you mortals. I'd be willing to bet that they won't even recognize you. Stay. See them again. I'll help you through the pain, if you let me. Just stay."

"I don't know if I can," broad shoulders trembled slightly with his suppressed emotions.

Loki shifted onto the bed beside the other man and put his arm around his shoulders, "You don't have to be alone, Barton. I'll help you, if you just let me in."

The archer scoffed, "Cause letting you in always ends pretty."

"Fury took the scepter and my brother took the Tesseract back to Asgard," the trickster shrugged. "I have no other way of controlling you, Barton. This is just me, trying to be a friend."

"I don't do friends," he shook his head. "But why not, you know everything now anyway."

* * *

Ammie: Okay, so there it is, the first chapter of a new fic, and my first day of Christmas Present. Hope to hear what you think.


	2. Chapter 1: The Cavalry Arrives

The Truth

By Ammie Hawk

Disclaimer: …

AN: We're half way there with the Sixth day of Christmas.

Chapter 1: The Cavalry Arrives

Duo Maxwell tapped lightly on the steering wheel of the car he was currently driving, waiting for traffic to move. His husband was sitting quietly in the passenger seat, looking out the window at the tall buildings around them.

"So," the braided man asked, trying to break the silence around them, and his own boredom, "what did Tony say when you told him we were gonna be in town? Did he seem excited?"

"Duo," the blond chuckled slightly and turned his gaze over to him, "I already told you this three times since we found out we were coming to New York. He was excited, and he said we were going to stay with him."

"I know," Duo sighed. "I'm just bored. Though, ya know, I've been thinking."

"Should I be scared?" Quatre asked, smiling.

"Ha ha, very funny. No, but anyway, why can't we tell him? Ya know, he's Iron Man for cryin' out loud. We know his secret, can't we just tell him ours?"

"You know we can't," the former Sandrock pilot sighed heavily. "After what happened with Trowa, we can't risk it. No matter how close we are to someone. No one can ever know."

"But it's Tony," Duo protested. "He won't tell, you know that."

"That's not the point," the blond reached over and took hold of his husband's hand. "We're under orders, it's for our own protection. There are still people out there that don't think too fondly of us. Une wouldn't have told us to lay low if she wasn't worried about us. As much as I love Tony, and I hate keeping this from him, we absolutely can't tell him."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, I just figured that since we're gonna be staying with him for the foreseeable future," he gave the hand a squeeze, "it might be nice to actually tell him."

"I know," Quatre smiled. "However, I think we're here. Turn right, the tower's right there."

The self-proclaimed Shinigami turned and put the car in park. They both got out of the car and made their way to the trunk to get their bags. Once they were loaded down with their things, they headed to the front door of the huge tower. The lower levels they knew to be office buildings, so they just went inside and made their way to the closest elevator.

When the doors closed, Duo grinned at his husband and took the button panel off the wall. He pulled out the wires and began fiddling around. After a minute, he stepped back and the machine began moving. The blond just shook his head, knowing that this was all part of the byplay between the former Deathscythe pilot and Iron Man.

The elevator continued upward, even after they reached the final floor, according to the numbers on the panel.

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The next few days passed in a flurry of activity, with upgrades and construction being done to the building, courtesy of Tony Stark and him paying a construction crew to work fast. Tony oversaw all the remodeling himself, while everyone else just kept to their own pursuits. Clint and Loki kept to the former's room mostly, and no one really bothered them, though there were a few who were curious as to what was going on between the two, namely Thor and Natasha, but they kept their speculations to themselves at present.

Finally, the day came for the arrival of Tony's guests. Tony was anxiously going over all the new improvements he had added to the tower, muttering to himself about things not being good enough. The others just left him to it, though most of them were intrigued as to what kind of person could illicit this kind of response from the billionaire.

At half past twelve, the elevator dinged, causing everyone in the tower to look over curiously. The only people they had been expecting were Tony's friends, and they hadn't been told they had arrived.

"Jarvis?" Tony addressed the AI.

"I'm s-s-sorry, sir," Jarvis' voice was staticy, "b-but my s-s-security pr-protocols have been over-over…"

"It's okay, Jarvy," a new voice interrupted. "I'll fix ya up in a bit. Hiya! Ya'll look surprised to see us."

"Duo!" the billionaire ran over to the new arrival, picked him up off his feet and started swinging him around.

"Tony… Tony, put me down," the braided teen protested.

Tony complied, with a shit eating grin on his face, before turning to the other new arrival.

"Quat, it's been too long," he slung an arm around the blond's shoulders. "Come on in, guys, meet the rest of the gang."

The rest of the Avengers regarded the pair with open curiosity. It wasn't every day that they met anyone that Tony considered a friend.

"Duo, Quatre, allow me to introduce you to the Avengers," the billionaire turned to the rest of the room. "That's Captain America, Cappy or Steve Rogers, whichever you prefer," he started at the far right and began working his way around, "Dr. Bruce Banner, he goes by Bruce, unless you want to call him Big Green; there we have Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow; Thor; his brother, Loki, be careful of him, he's psychotic; and Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye. Guys, these are my friends Duo and Quatre."

"Tony, you're rambling," Agent Romanoff scoffed. "It's nice to meet you, Tony hasn't shut up about you for the past week."

"That sounds like Tony," the blond chuckled. "Perhaps one of you could show me to where we'll be staying. Duo is going to be accompanying Tony so he can fix Jarvis. Isn't that right, Duo?"

"Right, Jarvis," Duo fidgeted a bit, then leaned over to whisper to Tony, "Afterwards, you can show me those suits. I_ have_ to see them."

"We kinda need to get Jarvis back online first," the billionaire hissed back, "Kitty-Quat's looking scary. Anyway," he said louder for the rest of the room to hear, "Cappy, can you show Kitty-Quat to the room between yours and mine? Great! Bye."

With that, he grabbed the braided man's arm and began dragging him to the lab. Quatre shook his head, a fond smile gracing his features as he watched the pair disappear.

"Sorry," he turned to the rest of the assembled crowd, "I feel responsible for all this."

"It's not your fault," Clint scoffed, some things never changed. "Tony's just like that."

"I know," the blond chuckled, "but I am the one that introduced him to Duo and that has proven to be almost apocalyptic. Anyway, it is nice to meet all of you. I've heard a lot about you."

"Unfortunately, until Tony announced you were coming," Bruce shook his head, "we didn't know anything about you."

"Bullshit, Banner," the archer rolled his eyes, "with the exception of the Captain and these two," he indicated the Asgardians, "there's not a person on the Sphere or in the Colonies who hasn't heard of Quatre Raberba Winner."

Bruce and Natasha turned to regard the blond with new eyes. He shifted a bit uneasily under the scrutiny, he was used to this reaction, but he felt exposed under their gaze.

"Okay, I'm going to sound really out of place right now," Steve shook his head, "but what's so special about that?"

"Let's just put it this way, Caps," Clint said, his tone off to those who knew him well, "the Winners are for the Colonies what the Starks are for the Sphere, except they were always pacifists instead of merchants of death. Besides, it would take someone just as rich and crazy as him to befriend Tony Stark, don't you think?"

And with that being said, he pushed off the wall he'd been leaning against and left the room. All eyes followed his progress, none of them sure what had gotten into the usually mild mannered man.

"Excuse me," Natasha said after a moment and followed him from the room.

"Did I do something to personally offend him?" the blond Arabian looked at the others, his hand subconsciously rising to his chest.

"I don't know what his problem is," the Captain shook his head. "Well, maybe I should show you to your room."

"That would be nice, thank you," Quatre nodded and together they left the living room.

888888

Natasha found Clint in his 'nest,' located in one of the open rafters on the top floor of Stark Tower. He was sitting on the ledge, one leg dangling idly, the other drawn up to his chest with his arms resting on his knee. She sat down next to him, not seeming to care about the precariousness of the perch. Green eyes glanced sideways at her before shifting back to survey the lower floors.

"What?" he asked quietly.

"Just wondering what's going on with you," she shrugged. "I haven't seen you act like that since I first met you. Well, unless someone really does something to offend you. But you just met these guys. Now, I'm not trying to come off as judgmental here, but does this have anything to do with the obscene amounts of time you've been spending with Loki?"

"This has nothing to do with Loki," he sighed, shifting away from her. "He's just helping me with something. I know it sounds crazy, but having him inside my head has actually helped with this. And don't even bother asking, Nat, you're like my sister, which is why I'm not going to burden you with my past demons. Now, if you don't mind, I don't need to be interrogated by you, and I'd really rather be left alone."

With that, he grabbed a rope he had secured up there for easy descents and slid down, almost colliding with Tony and Duo as they returned from the lab. He barely spared them a glance but pivoted on the ball of his foot and practically glided around them. Before they even really registered what happened, he was gone.

888888

Tony led Duo down to his lab and gave him a quick tour, ending with the computer where the braided man would fix Jarvis. With much grumbling, Duo set about repairing the AI.

"So," Tony leaned his hip against the desktop where the other was working, "how're things going up in Space?"

"Bout the same as always," amethyst eyes flitted from screen to screen. "Couple friends got married recently, and of course, Quat hardly ever stops working."

"Yeah," the billionaire shook his head, "that guy's gonna work himself into an early grave. He really needs to learn to lighten up. Maybe we can get him to lighten up while he's here."

"Cha," Duo scoffed. "Yeah, not like I've been trying to do that for over fifteen years now, I don't think that's ever going to work. Quat just kinda does what he does, we just got to be there to keep him together or pick up the pieces. And I think Jarvis is done, better than ever."

"What'd you do, Duo?" Tony's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Nothin'," an evil grin split the self proclaimed Shinigami's face. "Anyway, as much as I want to play with your new toys, we should probably go rescue Quat, or your friends, ya know, whichever."

"Yeah, you're probably right," he pushed off the desk.

He draped his arm over Duo's shoulder, and together they made their way back to the upper floors. They had just entered the upper common room when a figure landed almost on top of them. They both stared in shocked incredulity as the archer practically danced around them and disappeared onto the balcony.

"What the hell was that about?" the braided man scowled at his companion.

"Don't know," Tony shrugged. "Didn't know Barton could move like that though?"

"Barton?" Duo's head whipped around so fast, Tony felt sorry for his neck.

"Yeah, you know, Clint Barton," the billionaire clarified, "Hawkeye, member of the Avengers. I introduced him earlier."

"Right, sorry," the braided man rubbed his forehead. "Bad flashback. Besides, Barton's not that uncommon a name. Anyway, he's dead. Moving on. Let's go find Quatre."

Tony nodded, choosing to momentarily ignore the tears in the amethyst depths. He led the usually hyperactive brunet to the room he'd had prepared for them. Before he even raised his hand to knock, the door opened to reveal the small blond Arabian.

"Duo?" he asked, his hand clutching at his heart.

"I'm fine, Quat," his husband gave him a watery smile. "Just a bit of a shock. Head's up, though, there's a Barton here. Clint Barton."

"I remember," Quatre nodded, pulling the braided man into his arms. "It's okay. I miss him, too."

"Okay, not to butt in," Tony frowned at the pair, "but I know I'm missing something."

"Sorry, Tony," the blond pulled back and led Duo over to sit on the bed. "About ten years ago now, a friend of ours was killed by terrorists. He went by the name Trowa Barton. We still miss him terribly, and practically every day we ask ourselves why we couldn't save him. And every now and then we think we see or hear him, and it makes it worse."

"No, I get it, I'm sorry," the billionaire shook his head. "I'll talk to the others. We'll call him Clint or Hawkeye or something else while you're here."

"You don't have to do that," the blond gave a faint smile. "It was just surprising, we know now so it's not a problem."

"If you're sure," Tony gave them a pointed look. "Cause I want you guys to be comfortable. The others can leave for all I care."

"That won't be necessary," Quatre chuckled. "They're your friends too, even if you don't want to admit it. Now, did the two of you get Jarvis fixed?"

* * *

Ammie: Okay, so there's the next chapter. Please let me know what you think.


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